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Cyprus: Church suicide threat lands
Kurdish man in jail
27.3.2007
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March 27, 2007
Cyprus, -- A Kurdish political asylum seeker
from Turkey was yesterday jailed by a Nicosia Court
after threatening to commit suicide inside Nicosia’s
Faneromeni Church on Saturday afternoon.
Yesterday, a Nicosia judge sentenced the 41-year-old
man to 30 days imprisonment after pleading guilty to
the two charges of entry into a private area with
the intention of disturbing the peace and illegal
possession of a knife.
Police arrested the man at around 4pm on Saturday
after he wandered into the church and demanded to
speak to the priest.
“I wanted to speak to the priest because I had some
problems,” he told the judge yesterday.
But he became disgruntled when the priest did not
show up and decided that the best way to get
attention was to pull out a knife and place it
against his throat.
It was then that the police were called from Paphos
Gate police station.
“Two police officers arrived at the church and the
defendant eventually put the knife down after CID
Constable Perseas Hadjileontis managed to calm him
down,” said State Prosecutor Margarita Avraamidou.
According to the Kurdish man, he had fled Turkey and
arrived in the occupied north last Tuesday. He then
crossed into the south on Thursday.
He also told the court that being an EU state,
“Cyprus is obliged to offer me political asylum”.
“My life in Turkey was very hard and that is why I
decided to leave.”
Jailing him yesterday, Judge Alexandros Panayiotou
said, “It is not the first time that the courts have
dealt with individuals requesting political asylum
because they want a better future for themselves. We
feel compassion for them.
“However, the manner in which the defendant wanted
to express his intention for political asylum was
not only socially unacceptable but also illegal.
“Cyprus is a hospitable state and it expects its
visitors to show a mutual respect to its laws.”
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